


Crimson

by teamchaosprez



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Non-Despair (Dangan Ronpa), Found Family, Friendship, Gen, Sibling Bonding, Trans Male Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-09
Updated: 2018-07-09
Packaged: 2019-06-08 00:18:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15231201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teamchaosprez/pseuds/teamchaosprez
Summary: Kokichi paints Maki's nails.





	Crimson

**Author's Note:**

> this takes place in a nodespair au i made with some friends. i wrote this for my best friend tenko, because she runs this comic blog for them: harukawa-ouma . tumblr . com. please check it out!!!!!!

Maki liked to fidget.

Normally, it wasn’t something that bothered Kokichi all that much. But when someone’s hands constantly twitch while you’re trying to paint clean lines of crimson on their nails, it can be a little irritating. He had squeezed her hand at least three times now to ask her to stop moving around so much so he didn’t fuck up and get the polish on her skin instead of on her nails where it belonged, but her movements were ceaseless, and he now had to concentrate almost completely on trying to do this right. His tongue poked out of the edge of his mouth ever so slightly as he tried to not mess up.

It didn’t work. Maki’s hand moved, and a line of dark red tainted her pale skin. Kokichi let out a heavy, slightly irritated sigh, before reaching to his side to take nail polish remover and a checkered cloth out of his beauty box and swipe gently, cleaning it off before it could get the chance to dry. She looked a little sheepish when he glanced at her face, and the urge to scold her completely left as he picked up the bottle of nail polish once more to get started on the manicure she’d asked for once more.

“You’ve never been interested in me doing your nails before,” he commented, a small, teasing smile appearing across his face as violet eyes glanced up at his friend. More like a big sister, really. “What’s the special occasion? Do you have a  _ hot date _ coming up that you wanna look all fancy for?” His head tilted slightly, thick eyelashes batting ever so slightly with faked innocence. Maki rolled her eyes at him, and he gave a jokingly offended scoff as she redirected her attention to her hands and the movements his made as he worked. She didn’t twitch anymore.

“Something like that.” She didn’t sound very comfortable sharing information like this with him, so he made a mental note to ask her about her relationship with Kaede as much as humanly possible to get on her nerves. The two of them remained quiet for a few more moments, Kokichi trying to think of something else he could say - he was a little startled when Maki spoke up instead. “... Thanks. For doing this for me. Can… I ask how you got so good at stuff like this? You didn’t have a lot of money with DICE and makeup is expensive, right?”

He shrugged, not having expected a question like that. People just… didn’t question how he knew even the biggest secrets, and being good at makeup and manicures seemed small in comparison to knowing that Maki Harukawa was an assassin, or knowing about the significantly less humane habits and experiments of Hope’s Peak Academy. “Makeup isn’t that expensive, you can get some decent stuff from the dollar store. It’s a pain on my sensitive skin, though.” He put the bottle of nail polish down, stretched slightly to get rid of some of the kinks in his back from sitting in a hunched position for too long. “... I couldn’t really start practicing until a few months ago when school started, though. I  _ owned _ some makeup, and I was always watching tutorials and stuff on YouTube, but… I was too scared to do anything with it until I was sure I was safe here.”

“Why?”

Ah.

An innocent question, but it made Kokichi squirm. He trusted Maki, of course he did, but he didn’t especially like talking about his past. Didn’t like talking about the cult like conditions of the organization that raised him. He knew Maki thought it was unhealthy, and he knew that some of the things he said about it only fed that suspicion. Still, she asked, so…

“Not everybody accepted me as a boy.” He grabbed her opposite, unpainted hand, began working on those nails for the sake of doing something to distract him as he talked. “I was obsessed with passing, I guess. I couldn’t really stand to do much of anything feminine until after that day I had to go without a binder.” He let out a nervous little laugh, as if to direct away any questions that might come from him revealing some of his insecurities. “Is that silly or what? Being scared of looking girly is silly.”

“It’s not silly.” She sounded a little awkward trying to encourage and validate him. Maki had roughly the emotional intelligence of a cashew, didn’t really know how to deal with her own mental illnesses and trauma, let alone other people’s. Kokichi was happy that she was even trying, honestly. “I… get it. Don’t really understand what you’re going through, but I can at least understand the logic behind it. I can tell you that I think… I think you’re good at the whole makeup thing, and you still look like a boy to me regardless of what you wear, feminine or masculine. Anyone who says otherwise is an asshole, and I’ll stab them for you if you need me to.”

Kokichi felt his throat close up ever so slightly as he finished the last finger on Maki’s hand, and he swallowed down the lump that formed there. He was grateful for her, grateful that she was supportive even if she wasn’t all that good at expressing it. If blood mattered to him at all, he would probably wish that she was his sister by blood, not just by choice.

… Who was he kidding. He did wish that.

“Thanks,” he responded, voice a little quiet as he gently blew on the drying nail polish. Kokichi was uncharacteristically quiet for a few moments, letting Maki withdraw her hand and just sitting quietly for a while before he rose to his feet, the beauty box under his arm to be put away. The supreme leader crossed the room, shoved the supplies in their usual spot, and cleared his throat, putting a big mischievous smile back on his face as he twirled around to face his friend. “Anyway, you better tell me  _ eeeeverything _ that happens on your date with Kaede! Don’t make me turn to her for answers!”

Maki rolled her eyes.

**Author's Note:**

> feel free to leave a comment if you enjoyed!


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